


The greatest heroes you've never heard of

by Lancelot_of_the_revolution



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-14 06:42:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17503577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lancelot_of_the_revolution/pseuds/Lancelot_of_the_revolution
Summary: A collection of superhero au one shots:Hearth is a magic based superhero called Runestone, who takes in Magnus as a sidekick. Blitz is the local tech expert who designs their costumes and keeps track of emergencies. The mcga kids form a superhero team to protect the streets of Boston from the super villain Loki and his allies.





	1. Chapter 1

What the hell was a troll doing in downtown Boston? 

 

Hearth leapt from rooftop to rooftop, idly considering learning a flight spell in the near future, or else getting Blitz to whip up some kind of flying tech in lab. This whole acrobat shtick was getting tiring. 

 

_ Left turn here, you'll see the troll straight ahead _

 

Hearth read the text displayed on the lenses of his goggles and did as he was told. Sure enough, Blitz was absolutely right. A gray troll, about two stories tall with a stench like rotting meat, chose that exact moment to send a Prius flying over Hearth's head. 

 

Luckily, however, the troll didn't seem to be aiming for Hearth. In fact, it didn't seem to know he was there at all. Hearth scanned the area looking for some kind of advantage against this goliath. Thankfully, the street and its closest neighbors was clear of civilians, as Blitz had already informed him. By now most people in this city knew when to evacuate. 

 

Though why they continued to live in such a chaotic place was beyond Hearth. 

 

Hearth took a moment to cast a strength spell on himself, tracing the thurisaz rune in mid air, before sprinting across the rooftops toward the troll. He leapt onto the troll’s shoulders, wrapping his arms and legs around its throat and pulling his own body weight backwards in the hoped of throwing the troll off balance. 

 

Unfortunately, Hearth's acrobatic skills and cat-like reflexes weren't faster than gravity, and hearth was left falling along with the troll. The troll’s gigantic head landing square on Hearth's stomach left him out of breath, but otherwise fine thanks to his strength spell. He flashed an “okay” sign at the nearest security camera to convey the message. In response, the word “idiot!” blinked in bold red across his goggles. 

 

Hearth didn't have the spend much time figuring out how to extract himself from beneath the troll, because it stood on its own accord, and plucked Hearth up between its thumb and forefinger as it did so. Hearth soon found himself dangling by his shirt collar two stories in the air over a Boston street. 

 

Once again, Hearth found himself  _ really  _ wishing he knew any flight spells. 

 

There was something behind the troll’s eyes, something far too intelligent for a regular monster. 

 

And Hearth was absolutely not thinking about that at the moment, because he was about a hundred times more concerned with not dying. Trolls were pretty prone the throwing things. Hearth took a second to trace a rune in the air beside him, and felt his hands burst into bright red flames. He reached up and grabbed the trolls thumb with his framing hands, causing the troll to drop him onto the asphalt below. 

 

_ Nice one!  _ Blitz’s message flashed across Hearth's goggles. 

  
  


Hearth traced one last rune, one that sent the troll flying down the street, right toward--

 

Oh God. Oh no. 

 

Right toward a blond headed, knobby kneed, 14 year old civilian boy. 

 

And Hearth was too far away to do anything but think about how the kid looked a little like Andi.

 

The boy threw up his arms, as if to block himself from the troll. The troll was stopped in mid air, floating in a translucent, glimmering gold sphere. Slowly, the kid turned to look, wide eyed, at the troll hanging above him. 

 

Hearth took off sprinting toward the kid, frantically signing, “Are you okay? That was amazing!”

 

The kid's face lit up when he saw Hearth running toward him, “you're Runestone!” he said, keeping his hands in the air. 

 

Hearth nodded, “That's me,” he said, “Are you okay?”

 

The kid took a minute to respond, “yeah, I'm fine-- sorry, my asl is a bit rusty.”

 

“It's okay” Hearth made a mental note to sign slower, “What's your name?”

 

“Magnus Chase,” the kid slowly began lowering his arms, and the bubble began to lower along with them, until it landed on the ground, “And uh… This is new, by the way, I've never done anything like this before.” he nodded toward the energy bubble. “No idea what's going on, really.”

 

“It feels like magic” Hearth noted. 

 

Magnus blinked, “Sorry, I don't know that word.”

 

Before Hearth could answer, a flash of yellow-green came from inside Magnus’ force field. Magnus and Hearth looked to see a scarred face smiling back at them from inside the bubble. 

 

“Loki!” Magnus shouted, at the same time Hearth signed, “I should have known.”

 

The super villain started talking. Hearth assumed he was going about his usual insults, and decided not to expend energy trying to read his lips. 

 

“Huh. Guess that thing's sound proof,” Magnus said once he'd turned back to look at Hearth. 

 

“Hadn't noticed.”

 

Magnus snorted, then his eyes widened as if he'd just realized something important, “I caught the biggest super villain in the city on my first day with super powers!”

 

Hearth's chest swelled with something like pride. “Yeah, you did,” Hearth paused for a minute, “Let him go”

 

“What!?” 

 

“Let him go” Hearth repeated, and Magnus did as he was told. Magnus dropped his arms to his sides and the bubble disappeared. Within minutes, Loki was chained to a nearby lamp post. 

 

Hearth turned back to Magnus, “The police will be here soon,” he said, “You should come with me.”

 

***

 

“You can't just bring random children back to headquarters, Hearth! What are you doing?!” Blitz was already at the door when Hearth opened it. 

 

Magnus ducked his head under Hearth's arm to look around their apartment, then up at Blitz. “how'd you know I was coming?”

 

Blitz vaguely gestured to the back of the room by way of answering, toward the wall covered in screens playing footage from security cameras all over Boston. Then Blitz went right back to scolding Hearth, “He's a child, Hearth! You can't just drag a child off the street into our apartment! That's not okay!”

 

“You're being a very rude host,” Hearth said, completely ignoring Blitz’s complaints. 

 

Blitz huffed and stepped out of the doorway so that Hearth and Magnus could come in. 

 

“Hey kid, what's your name?” Blitz asked Magnus, speaking out loud for the first time since they saw each other. Blitz tried to keep his voice steady-- his partner's stupidity wasn't the kid's fault. 

 

“Magnus Chase,” the kid looked around for a moment, “Can I sit down?” he gestured to the couch

 

“Go ahead. Where's your family at, Magnus?”

 

Magnus started to tear up, and Blitz immediately felt awful. 

 

“She… only a month ago… she's--”

 

“Hey, kid, you don't have to answer that,” Blitz thought back to the weeks after his father's death. He had no idea what happened to magnus’ family, but he could see himself in the kid’s face. He knew there was pain there, and he wasn't going to make it worse. “Just uh. Tell me where you live?”

 

“I don't really live anywhere,” Magnus said, hurrying to dry his eyes

 

Well, that complicates things. 

 

Hearth walked back into the room wearing civilian clothes-- honestly, Blitz didn't even notice that he'd left. Blitz grabbed his hand and dragged him back down the hall. 

 

“What are we going to do with this kid?” 

 

Hearth shrugged, “I don't know. I want to train him,”

 

Blitz blinked, “What?”

 

“You saw his powers! He has potential! And… Blitz, he's--” 

 

“Homeless, I know. He told me, too,” Blitz frowned

 

“He needs help. We could help him. Besides, Loki saw his face. We need to protect him after that.”

 

Blitz knew Hearth was right. He took a deep breath, “Just promise me one thing?”

 

“Anything”

 

“I get to design his suit.” Blitz said with the slightest smile. He still didn't like the idea of being responsible for the kid, dragging him into this superhero life, but he supposed he didn't have much of a choice. They'd never turn down someone in need. 


	2. Chapter 2

“So did you make all this stuff yourself?” 

 

Magnus was leaning over Blitz’s shoulder, scanning the wall sized computer system that had taken over the back of the living room. In addition to the thirty or so computer monitors that were showing CCTV footage from all over town, there were screens tuned to most major news sources, as well as another screen that would have been displaying Hearth's vital signs if he were in his costume. 

 

“Of course I made it myself, kid,” Blitz didn't look up from whatever he was tinkering within his lap, “It's not like I could have hired someone else to do it, you know? It would have blown our cover.”

 

Hearth passed Blitz a screwdriver from the toolbox but otherwise kept out of the conversation. 

 

“So you're some kind of genius,” Magnus said. 

 

Blitz snorted, “Yep,” he said, turning his head up so that Hearth and Magnus could see his face. Sarcasm was evident in his voice, as though he found the idea of being a called genius absolutely insane, “It's the only reason this idiot wizard keeps me around, so that I can be the brains behind his superhero operation.”

 

“That's not true,” Hearth said with that slight smile that Magnus was beginning to recognize as a joking tone, “I also like you for your body”

 

Blitz laughed, “How could I forget. But no, kid, I'm no genius,”

 

Hearth and Magnus both said “Yes you are!” at the same time. Hearth crossed his arms and glared in a way that told Magnus they'd had this conversation before. 

 

Magnus continued, “I don't know anyone else who could do all the stuff I've seen you doing with technology, and I've only been here a week!”

 

Blitz shook his head, “It's nothing special, it's just a hobby. It's not even that, it's just part of the hero thing. I'm no engineer, anyway… I'm a fashion designer. It's what I'm going to school for,”

 

Magnus sputtered at the idea that hacking every security system in Boston could be a hobby, “Are you kidding me? In what world is this not-”

 

“I'm finished,” Blitz cut him off, holding up the device he'd been building. The mass of wires of various length hanging from a shiny metallic plate reminded magnus of a robotic jellyfish. 

 

“Awesome! What is it?”

 

“It's your skeleton,” Blitz said, “Or I guess it's more of a nervous system. I'll be sewing this thing into your suit. It reads your vitals- heart rate, oxygen levels, that sort of thing. Hearth has the same thing in his suit.”

 

“Not a genius my ass” magnus said, shaking his head. 

 

Hearth spread his arms in a “See? Told you so” gesture. 

 

Blitz rolled his eyes, obviously desperate for a subject change, “Magnus, what's your favorite color?”

 

“Beige”

 

Blitz blinked, “Magnus, what's your favorite color that's not beige? I need a color scheme for your costume, and that's definitely not going to work.”

 

“I don't know. I don't really… Like colors” Magnus said. 

 

“Good lord, not this again. First Hearth, now you-- One day I'll meet someone who cares about aesthetics.”

 

“His powers are yellow,” Hearth suggested. 

 

Blitz mulled that over, “I suppose a yellow and white costume would work, are more cheerful mirror of Hearth's red and black. He's a bit pale, though… yellow might wash him out… ” Blitz seemed to be talking to himself now.

 

He motioned for Magnus and Hearth to follow him down the hall, into what magnus assumed was his bedroom but what looked more like a RadioShack had exploded inside of a Joann Fabrics, and then someone had dragged a bed in as an afterthought. There were swaths of fabric draped over every surface, and enough mechanical bits and bobs littering the place to fuel a robot uprising. 

 

Blitz held two slightly different swaths of yellow fabric up to Magnus’ chin, humming to himself as he did so. 

 

Magnus turned toward Hearth, “Is he always like this?”

 

Hearth nodded, and Magnus noted the fondness behind his eyes, “When he's designing… He goes into his own world.” Hearth explained. 

 

Blitz raised Magnus’ arms to measure them. Magnus realized that Blitz wasn't humming a tune, but muttering to himself far too softly for Magnus to understand of the words.

 

Magnus was about to open his mouth to speak again, but he was cut off by the flashing red light over the door way. He had no idea what it was, but Blitz and Hearth seemed to, because they both took off running toward the living room. 

 

Blitz seemed to notice Magnus’ confusion, “The light goes off when local news sites post breaking news, or when a silent alarm in town goes off. There's a light in every room.” He explained, scanning the screens for the source of the alert. Magnus idly wondered exactly how long it took them to convert their apartment into a functional superhero HQ. 

 

Hearth pointed to a CCTV feed from a local bank, where their old friend Loki was pacing around, waving a remote toward a huddle of hostages. Loki flashed a grin right at the camera. 

 

“Twice in a week? This is a trap” Blitz signed. 

 

“Of course it is.” Hearth said, before running off to change. A moment later, Magnus saw him as a flash of red and black on the apartment building's security camera-- he'd jumped off the roof. 

 

Blitz sat down at the computer, typing instructions for how to get to the bank. Everything he typed showed up in red on a chat log on the bottom screen. Once he finished, he leaned back and watched Hearth's course, alternating between looking at the GPS tracker in his suit and watching the CCTV feeds he'd set to stay on Hearth's track. 

 

Magnus dragged a chair in from the dining room to watch by Blitz’s side. 

 

On screen, Hearth jumped from a rooftop to a lamp post, then down to the bank’s awning. Blitz let out a low whistle watching him flip through the air. 

 

Magnus’ eyes flicked between Hearth on the screen and Blitz sitting next to him, “Are you two dating?” he asked. 

 

Blitz didn't take his eyes off the screen as he watched Hearth enter the bank, “That's a good question, kid. I'll get back to you on that when I know the answer.” he muttered. 

 

Through the bank's security camera, Blitz and Magnus watched Loki approach Hearth, still holding the remote. 

 

“I need to hear this,” Blitz said, pressing a button on the desk on front of him. 

 

“... Dead man's switch” a small set of speakers crackled to life. 

 

“Oh, fuck,” Blitz muttered, “I hate those. I told him this was a trap.”

 

“Where's the audio coming from?”

 

“There's a mic in Hearth's suit. I don't usually use it, but today…” Blitz explained as Hearth said something on screen neither of them could quite see. 

 

“No, you're right, that's not all I'm hiding up my sleeve. I have other plans, Runestone. Just you wait,”

 

Hearth traced a rune at his side and his clenched fists burst into flames. He took a fighting stance. 

 

“Now now, Runestone, not that again! You're bringing back memories of the last time we saw each other. Say, speaking of, where's that little boy wonder of yours?” Loki flashed a smile at the camera, and a chill went down Magnus’ spine. 

 

 

When Hearth didn't respond, Loki shrugged, “All right then, I guess we're fighting now… I really need to get a nemesis that's good for banter.” Loki pulled a knife out of his belt with his free hand. 

 

“How's he going to fight with a dead man's switch?” Magnus asked

 

“He's not,” Blitz guessed, “There's got to be more to it.” 

 

And more to it there was. Hearth stepped forward to accept the challenge and immediately found himself hanging upside down by a rope around his ankle, five feet in the air. The fire spell on his hands dissolved in his shock. 

 

“Shit!” Blitz sprang up, knocking his office chair over behind him. 

 

“Hah! The tables have turned! Now you're the one that's trapped. See, being tied up isn't much fun, is it?”

 

“That depends” Hearth signed. 

 

Blitz said, “Smart-ass” at the same time Loki said, “Let's keep it family friendly, Runestone, there are children present.”

 

Loki used the side of his knife to push Hearth's shoulder, causing him to start slowly spinning like the world's most pissed off mobile. 

 

“What if he throws up?” Magnus blurted out. 

 

Blitz didn't answer, he just started tapping his foot in what Magnus assumed was a nervous fidget. 

 

“He's gotten out of worse,” Magnus said in an attempt to calm Blitz’s nerves, “I've read the news stories, I've seen what he's done. He'll be okay,”

 

“I know, kid… I just wish he'd be okay sooner rather than later. This whole watching behind a screen thing gets kinda stressful.”

 

Magnus could understand that. 

 

“The thing is, Runestone…” Loki sat down the remote-- a bluff, of course. Someone who names himself after the god of lies couldn't be trusted. He started following Hearth's spin, walking in circles around him and signing as he spoke, “I'm getting tired of this routine. See, I enjoy our little games, but I think it's time I start winning.”

 

On the last word, Hearth shot up toward the bank's high ceiling. Once again, Hearth found himself stuck about two stories in the air, this time without a strength spell to protect him. 

 

But this time, Blitz didn't have time to worry for his safety. As soon as Hearth hit the ten foot mark, a voice from the crowd of hostages shouted, “Hey, jackass!” in an accent Magnus couldn't quite place. A fireball hit Loki square in the chest and sent him flying into the wall behind him. Another, much smaller fireball shot toward the rope holding Hearth up, cutting him free. Hearth managed to grab onto a nearby pillar as he fell and slid the rest of the way down like a fireman's pole. When he reached the ground, he signed, “Thank you” in the direction the fireball came from and dragged the unconscious Loki out by his shirt collar. 

 

“That's the second time in a row he's gotten his ass saved by a super powered bystander,” Blitz said as Hearth turned Loki over to the police, “I'm really not liking this streak.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, there's going to be one more chapter after this with 14 year old magnus and 18/19 year old blitz and hearth, and then we'll timeskip and start introducing more characters ^^


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a two parter! Part two will be the next chapter, and it'll be out pretty soon.

In the three months after Magnus’ entry into the lives of Blitz and Hearth and before his debut as Runestone’s sidekick, three things happened. 

 

First, Magnus, the only child, learned what it was like to have two older brothers. Two very protective, but very cool older brothers. Older brothers that cared about him, kept him safe, and who magnus knew would be there for him when he needed it. 

 

Second, Magnus trained. He learned how to use his powers-- he could make simple energy constructs like forcefields, platforms, and chains and hold them as long as he kept focus. He discovered that his constructs seemed to be stronger in direct sunlight, though thankfully skin exposure didn't seem to have any effect on the added strength. He also discovered that he could create a platform under his feet and fly around on it, though the process of learning to keep his balance on the damn thing was difficult and full of playful teasing on Blitz and Hearth's end. Of course, Magnus argued that Hearth was just jealous that he could fly at all. 

 

Finally, Magnus got a costume. The costume was the last thing to happen of the three, coming right at that three month mark. The process to deciding on an identity, as it turned out, took quite some time. 

 

“Do you want a symbol on your chest like Hearth has?” Blitz had asked early on in the process, looking up from his sketchbook. Magnus had been staying in the apartment for just about a month at that point. 

 

Magnus shrugged, “I'm his sidekick, right? Shouldn't we match?”

 

Blitz started chewing on the dull end of his artist's pencil as he contemplated, which magnus thought was kind of gross, but he didn't say anything about it. “You don't really have to match, though I guess it's traditional. You can have a different symbol, or none at all. I'm giving you a similar design to Hearth's, so even with a little difference like that it'll be easy to see you're a team.” Blitz flipped over his sketchbook to show Magnus what he was thinking so far. 

 

The outline looked like Hearth's costume-- a lightly armored jumpsuit that provided both protection and range of motion (and modesty-- blitz held a bitter and outspoken hatred for the trend of spandex super suits that were neither protective nor flattering). The suit had a white base with yellow boots, gloves, a golden belt and a yellow cowl, instead of the black and red of Hearth's, and Magnus’ cowl didn't display his hair the way Hearth's did, but it was obvious that they had the same designer and the same goal. 

 

“What's the symbol on Hearth's costume? Can't you just put it on mine?”

 

Blitz frowned, “It's called Perthro-- it's a rune. I'm not sure if that's a good idea, though. I think he's got a sort of personal connection to that one, it's not just a logo. He picked it for a reason.”

 

“That makes sense,” Magnus vaguely wondered what the story was there, but there was no way he was going to press for details. 

 

Hearth picked that moment to walk into Blitz’s room, where Blitz was designing and Magnus was sitting on the floor. 

 

“How's the costume going?” Hearth asked, then held out his hand to Blitz to see the sketchbook. 

 

Blitz obliged. “we're almost done planning,” he said once Hearth had finished examining the sketch. 

 

And then Magnus’ stomach growled, and Blitz suggested ordering pizza because he knew full well that no one in that apartment could cook and, anyway, there wasn't anything in the fridge  _ to  _ cook. Superhero responsibilities all but forgotten, the three of them piled on the living room couch and settled into a pizza filled  _ star trek  _ marathon. Their own family dinner. 

  
  
  


It was some time after that before the suit was finished. 

 

Magnus was trying on his cowl for the first time. 

 

“This is weird.” he said, waving his hand in front of his face. His new goggles turned everything a funny shade of yellow. The tint and the visor shape distorted his features enough to keep his identity a secret, so he knew it was a necessity… but it was certainly going to take some getting used to. 

 

Hearth was standing in front of him, arms crossed and smirking, “Just wait.” he said. 

 

A bright, bold, “ **hello world!”** popped up in Magnus’ vision, causing him to stumble back in surprise. 

  
  


“What the hell?” Magnus laughed, “What was that?”

 

“Just some programming humor,” Blitz tapped the newest screens on his control panel-- one that displayed messages to Magnus in gold and another that showed messages to both of them in black, “Glad to see your com goggles are functional.”

 

Magnus yanked the cowl off, leading Hearth to laugh at the state it left his hair in, “Functional? Yes, but not very comfortable.”

 

“You get used to it,” Hearth assured him. 

 

Blitz took the cowl back, “Now we have your mask, all we need is your secret identity.”

 

“Isn't that just… My face?” Magnus asked. 

 

“Normally, yes…” Blitz started. 

 

“But Loki already saw your face,” Hearth jumped in

 

“We really don't want to leave this sort of thing up to chance,” Blitz explained. Magnus was getting used to the way Blitz and Hearth seemed to function on the same wavelength. 

 

“So you want to pull a Clark Kent,” Magnus said, “Make my civilian identity as much of a disguise as my hero one.”

 

“Exactly-- at least for right now.” Blitz grabbed a pair of thick rimmed glasses off of his desk and handed them to magnus, “The glasses are a start. Are you willing to get a haircut?”

 

“Do I have much of a choice?”

 

Blitz frowned, “Uh, probably not.” he admitted. 

  
  
  


The next day, Blitz tossed a pen across the room to get Hearth's attention. 

 

Hearth ducked out of the way, though he obviously didn't need to because the pen was flying past a good two feet in front of his face anyway. “That was rude.” Hearth said. 

 

“I wasn't aiming for you,” Blitz shrugged, “Just needed you to look at me.”

 

“Still rude,” Hearth said, this time with a ghost of a smile, “What do you need?”

 

“Your girlfriend is on TV,” 

 

Magnus frowned, “Girlfriend?” he hadn't heard of Hearth having any kind of love intrest-- aside from Blitz, but the two of them seemed hesitant to label whatever their relationship was. 

 

“Childhood friend,” Hearth rolled his eyes, “I-n-g-e”

 

The three of them crowded around the control desk. Magnus sort of recognized the reporter, he'd probably seen her on TV before. A nervous looking young lady who could have passed for Hearth's cousin with her light hair and pale skin. 

 

“She's head over heels for Hearth,” Blitz explained. 

 

“She is not! She's just a close friend.” Hearth insisted, then stared intently at the screen, removing himself from the conversation. 

 

“I think she's barking up the wrong tree,” Magnus noted. 

 

Blitz laughed at that one.

 

Hearth smacked his arm, “Pay attention,” he said, nodding to the screen. 

 

“ _ President Walker will be meeting with the French ambassador in her hometown of Boston today--” _

 

“We should probably keep watch on them,” Hearth said, unhooking his goggles from their charging port. 

 

“Inge will be happy about that.” Blitz teased, giving Hearth a playful shove. 

 

“Does she know?” Magnus asked

 

“That Hearth and Runestone are the same person? I don't think so. But she likes Runestone even more than she likes Hearth.” 

 

Hearth rolled his eyes and raised his hands like he was going to say something, but thought better of it at the last moment. Instead, he turned to Magnus and said, “Want to patrol with me?”

 

Magnus lit up, “Really?”

 

“Sure, it will probably be a slow day. I could use company.” 

 

“Good choice for a first mission.” Blitz agreed, and tossed Magnus his costume. Magnus ran off to get dressed. 

 

Hearth turned to follow, but Blitz grabbed his arm before he could leave the room. 

 

“He's too excited about this,” Blitz frowned. He was just a kid, only fourteen. What if this was a bad idea? What if this was too dangerous, what if he got hurt? 

 

“It's still new to him. He'll get over it soon. We did.” Blitz remembered when they'd first started out, when they were still in high school. Hearth had been sixteen, and Blitz fifteen-- just a year older than Magnus was now. Just three years ago. Now he was worried about this new kid, but they were still just kids themselves.

 

“Besides,” Hearth continued, “I'll keep him safe.” 

 

“You better,” Blitz smiled through his nerves, “And keep yourself safe, too-- no more getting your ass saved by strangers.” 

 

“I haven't died yet.” Hearth said. They stared at each other for a moment before Hearth leaned down and kissed Blitz’s forehead. “It's just a patrol,” he said, “We'll be okay.”

 

Magnus stepped into the room in full costume, “Hey guys I-- oh uh… am I interrupting something?”

 

Blitz turned around to face Magnus, “Nope, Hearth was just about to go put on his costume.” he said as Hearth slipped past them. 

  
  
  


Magnus leaned against the outside wall of a fancy hotel while Hearth chatted with Inge-The-Reporter. The cameras were off at the moment, leaving Inge and “Runestone” to catch up without interruption. 

 

Magnus found himself impressed with Inge’s fluency in ASL. Magnus was conversational at best after two years of middle school ASL classes and three months of living with Blitz and Hearth. He had no chance keeping up with Inge and Hearth's conversation when both of them were signing with the speed and vocabulary of native speakers. Magnus closed his eyes and tilted his head toward the sky, feeling the sunlight on his face. Hearth wasn't kidding when he said it'd be a slow day. 

 

Then Magnus heard someone call out, “Hey!” and he turned to see Inge waving him over. 

 

Magnus made his way over to the duo. 

 

“Sorry, that was kind of rude of me,” Inge gave a nervous smile, and Magnus found himself wondering if she had any other kind of smile to give, “I just don't actually know your name…”

 

Magnus opened his mouth to answer, but then he realized that he'd never actually decided on a superhero name. “Neither do I, actually.” he said. 

 

“Oh!” Inge lit up, “Can I name you?” She was signing and speaking at the same time, and she was, and far as Magnus could tell, doing an absolutely flawless job at both. 

 

“She named me,” Hearth noted, “you could make it a tradition.”

 

Magnus shrugged, “Why not?” he described his powers to her to give her some ideas. 

 

Inge tapped her chin as she thought, “Hmm… that's a tough one… something sun themed… I'll have to think about that for a bit.”

 

The cameraman called out to Inge, telling her they were going back on air. As the cameraman started his countdown, Inge held the microphone back to her face and put on her best (slightly nervous looking) reporter smile.

 

“I'm standing here waiting for the president to arrive, and with me is famed superhero Runestone and his new sidekick-- oh! There's the president now!” 

 

The cameraman turned around to catch a shot of the president and ambassador, surrounded by secret service agents, walking up to the hotel. 

 

Inge followed them into the hotel so that she could take notes on their meeting to report on it later. Hearth and Magnus were left outside to patrol alongside secret service agents. 

 

“This is boring.” magnus said after an hour of absolutely nothing happening. 

 

“That's a good thing,” Hearth noted, “If it was interesting we'd be in trouble.” he paused for a moment, then added, “Now you know why I wanted company.”

 

Magnus made a shimmering gold chain in the air out of his powers and started weaving it through his fingers just to give him something to do. It sort of reminded him of those worm on a string toys he'd beg his mom to buy him at the grocery store when he was younger. 

 

The front door of the hotel swung open and Magnus’ energy chain disappeared in a puff of yellow smoke as he turned to see who was leaving the building. 

 

“Hey,” Inge waved, “They're in recess right now, so I thought I'd come see you two. You know, you could always come inside with us. At least, if these guys are okay with it.” 

 

Hearth raised a brow at the nearest secret service agent, who nodded. 

 

“Want to go inside?” Hearth asked Magnus 

 

“Absolutely,” Inge barely had time to step out of the way before Magnus was through the door. 

 

As it turned out, watching political talk in a quiet room was even more boring than watching cars drive past outside. They were still doing absolutely nothing, and now they couldn't even play punch buggy to pass the time. 

 

Magnus was bored out of his mind. 

 

That is, until the room went black. 

 

_ I've lost camera connection  _ Blitz told them through their goggles. Hearth pressed a button on his shoulder and the sides of his goggles lit up with LED lights. Magnus did the same. 

 

A television in the corner of the room flickered on, showing the grinning face of one of the servers that had been waiting on the president's meeting. Slowly, the face melted into that of Loki. 

 

“Hello, Madam President,” Loki said on screen with Subtitles appearing below him, “Welcome back to Boston.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know jack shit about fashion but I do watch a lot of superhero theory videos on YouTube and I know that, despite what comics would have you believe, spandex costumes actually take away muscle definition, which is what blitz is referring to when he calls them "unflattering". I also? Referred to Hearth's mask/goggles thing as a cowl but I don't actually think that's what it's called? He's got one of those things that goes up the back of his head and wraps around his forehead and the sides of his face but leaves his hair exposed like kid flash or booster gold or gambit, and then his com goggles hook onto the front and cover his eyes. Anyway Google wouldn't tell me what those things are called and I doubt magnus would know anyway so


End file.
